


Susan Foreman vs Gender Roles

by LadyZoZo



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Coal Hill School, Gender Roles, Other, Pre-Serial: s001 An Unearthly Child, Susan is ignorant of basic Earth knowledge but we love her anyway, genderless Time Lords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-11 22:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29250120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyZoZo/pseuds/LadyZoZo
Summary: Susan doesn't know what gender is, and that leads to some issues when attending Coal Hill School
Kudos: 12





	Susan Foreman vs Gender Roles

Susan felt like she was doing something wrong, but she wasn’t entirely sure what. She was following all the school rules. She had on her uniform, she wasn’t swearing or using improper language (as if Grandfather would even let her if she tried) and she was doing all her work on time. Sure she’d got a few details wrong on the last science quiz but nothing too conspicuous, just a couple of tiny anomalies that would have made perfect sense in fifty year’s time.

And yet here she was, standing in the bathroom being stared at and feeling as though she were doing something incredibly naughty, though it was clear that she wasn’t. All she had done was use the loo, that’s hardly against Coal Hill rules.

To try and prove this, Susan moves over from the toilet stall to the sink and begins washing her hands. Still though the three others in the room stare at her.

“Look, is there something the matter?” Susan asks them. “Because you are all staring at me as though I had ink on my face.” Susan specifically used this example as she could see in the mirror in front of her that she did not, in fact, have ink on her face.

“It’s just… this is the wrong bathroom.” One of the three says.

“Well go and find the correct one then?” Susan prompts them. She turns off the tap and begins drying her hands as the three others start to laugh. “What? What is it?”

“Nothing.” Says another one of them. “Just you carry on Susie.”

“Susan.” Susan snaps. “It’s the same amount of syllables as Susie so it is not exactly hard to use my full name.”

“Alright, sorry Susan.” He grins as though he weren’t really sorry. “But Mr Chesterton is going to go ballistic when he knows you’re here.”

“But Mr Chesterton already knows I am here?” Susan frowns. “I had him for science just an hour ago.”

The trio snicker to themselves and leave the toilets together, leaving Susan feeling rather confused. Why would Mr Chesterton be angry at her using the toilet?

Susan ponders this for a brief moment before simply shrugging it off and leaving the room herself to get some lunch.

~🌺~

Later that day Susan is told to go and see Mr Chesterton before going home. This naturally confuses and worries her. What if those three really had gotten her into trouble for something? She couldn’t for the lives of her think what though, she hadn’t done anything wrong, had she?

Susan swallows her nerves and knocks on the classroom door four times. A second passes before Mr Chesterton’s voice says, “Come in.”

Susan pushes open the door and slips inside the science room. She always loved the smell of these rooms in particular when compared to the rest of the school. The rich smell of chemicals, the mixtures of harmless gasses in the air and the strong alkaline scent that came off the (not very good) cleaning spray that they used to disinfect the room after experiments, it all reminded her of home in an odd way.

“Ah Susan.” Mr Chesterton puts down his book and turns his chair to face her. “Please, take a seat.” He gestures to the other side of his desk, where a small wooden chair had been placed. She nods and sits.

“What did you want to see me for Mr Chesterton?” She asks, hoping that her nerves weren’t quite as obvious to him as they were to her.

“A few reasons.” He starts. “Firstly, your answers for the quiz.”

“I’m sorry Mr Chesterton.”

“Nothing to be sorry about Miss Foreman.” Mr Chesterton smiles at her. “Your answers were quite astonishing. You gave PHD level answers to a GCE level quiz.”

“Is there a difference?”

“A big one.” Chesterton tells her. “It would be like a preschooler using pythagoras’ theorem to solve a sum.”

“Oh.” Susan said, as though she had any idea what that meant.

“But that isn’t the main reason I wanted to ask you here.”

“Oh?” Susan repeats, this time with a more inquisitive tone.

“A young Mr Davidson told me that you were hanging around in the boy’s toilets earlier today.”

“I wasn’t hanging around Mr Chesterton, I was just using the toilet!” Susan exclaims. “I haven’t a clue what their problem was, they were the ones acting strange.”

“But you were using the boy’s toilets?”

“I suppose so, why?”

“Well why weren’t you using the girl’s toilets?”

“Is it not the same thing?” Susan asks. “Only, I thought that because I was wearing trousers I should go into the one that had the symbol on it for people wearing trousers rather than people wearing dresses.”

At this Mr Chesterton starts laughing. “I’m sorry?”

Susan, not understanding his amusement, continues. “Well was I doing something wrong? It’s just a toilet surely?”

“No Susan.” Chesterton chuckles. “Well, yes.” He swallows his amusement and puts on a serious face. “Listen, from now on no more joking around. You are to use the girl’s toilet and only the girl’s toilet. Understand?”

“Well no not-”

“Do you understand?” Chesterton says a little more bluntly. Susan sighs and nods.

“Yes Mr Chesterton, I understand.”

Susan did not understand. But she knew someone who might.

~🌺~

“Grandfather!” Susan calls out once inside the TARDIS. She hits the control to shut the doors and calls again. “Grandfather?”

“Through here Susan!” He calls back from the lounge area adjacent to the console room. “I’m just having a sit down, I’ve been out all day.”

Susan skips over to the side door and walks over to the sofa her Grandfather was sat on. She kisses him on the head before sitting down beside him. “Grandfather what’s the difference between a girl’s toilet and a boy’s toilet?”

“Pardon me?” Her Grandfather looks at her in shock. “That’s a rather strange question.”

“Yes I thought so too.” Susan agrees. “But apparently I was in the wrong one at school, I got into trouble for it.”

“Hmm…” Her Grandfather ponders this for a moment before chuckling quietly to himself. “Ah of course, oh yes.”

“What is it Grandfather?”

“Oh I believe you’ve just experienced one of the many issues with this time period.” He chuckles. “These Humans and their silly little obsession with gender never ceases to amaze me. Toilets for different genders, how silly!”

“Gender?” Susan asks. “What’s that?”

“You don’t know?” He asks. “Oh of course you wouldn’t. Nevermind, its just something that the more primitive races in the universe like to trouble themselves over. I wouldn’t worry about it, just be sure to use the female facilities and terms in future, for appearances sake.”

Susan nods, not entirely understanding. “Alright Grandfather, I’ll do my best.”

“Very good my dear.” He smiles at her warmly. “You know I’ve had such a day. First I met some poor excuse of a police officer who demanded to see my…”

Susan just smiles and nods from this point on, knowing she was going to be here listening about Grandfather’s adventure’s for at least another hour. She was already thinking about this whole gender thing and how to deal with it. She thought it best to read up on it overnight, that way she wouldn’t mess up again.

Why did Earth school have to be so complicated?


End file.
